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Steam Controller overview and videos/impressions
- Thread starter ashecitism
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november
Elitist1945
Member
Well shit. For some reason I assumed it was sooner than that. Oh well, still very excited.
Nabs
Member
When you use scroll wheel mode that I described above, the output isn't analog. It's not mapped to an axis, rather it's mapped to a series of digital key or mouse presses you send with every "tick" as you rotate along the wheel. So it wouldn't be very good for a steering wheel.
The setting is buried in the advanced menu:
It would be interesting if you could bind the outer ring to 8 or more keys for a hotkey bar/weapon wheel. Either by touching that part, or by sliding your finger around and releasing.
you can do that with 4 keys, I described last page how I did that with Axiom Verge.
ashecitism
Member
Those configs are for the touchpads though, right? I was talking about the stick itself.
thats my configuration for the analog stick in MGSV.
ashecitism
Member
Oh, ok. The D-pad description confused me.
Also, in case you didn't see my previous question. Where would the stick mouse config for the pads be good for?
Also, in case you didn't see my previous question. Where would the stick mouse config for the pads be good for?
Yeah, it's called "mode switching"
I haven't found much use for the stick mouse. In case you're unfamiliar with it, stick mouse is a mode where the mouse pointer returns either to the center of the screen or to the edge of the screen when you let go of it. It's like a mouse with tension.
It doesn't work very well at the moment, though, and there's no real way to choose whether it sticks to the center or the edge of the screen. It's very incomplete, it doesn't even have a description yet:
It might be good if you have a radial menu that, say, you pull up by pressing LB. What you could do then is make LB the mouse modifier so that, when it's held, the mouse switches to stick mouse mode. That way the mouse behavior would change to accommodate a radial menu where you just move your thumb to the appropriate area of the touchpad to select, rather than pointing with a cursor.
I'm interested in the Steam controller, but I'm also waiting for the Steam machines, as they come with one included and I don't need two of them. Is there a thread already to those of us mighty confused by the choice they are offered? http://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines
just buy an alienware one from your local gamestop or walmart. Don't pay attention to the others.
I can basically guarantee that none of the others will be sold in stores. They already have alienware alphas in walmarts. Going forward, alienware will basically be the samsung of steam machines - the brand that dominates the vast majority of their sales. The defacto standard, if you will.
Im liking the sound of that. Just one device to browse, Kodi and steam\games.
they said they'll be in hands on october 16th, so likely a few days prior.
fluffydelusions
Member
Wait what is this about early purchases? They get them sooner?! Wish I knew that. Still haven't got around to ordering one yet. If I knew that I would have though.
Spazznid
Member
First few days of preorders IIRC/
It bothers me that Alienware has a model was a fairly powerful i7 matched with an 860m GPU. I really think the generation 2 could be something though with a Pascal in it.
Cave Johnson
Member
I've pointed this factor out way back when thr steam controller was announced. It would make games that has high inventory more accessible and convenient.
Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
Is the only confirmed method of connecting to a cellphone via otg cable or is there built in Bluetooth?
I can't wait to tinker with my controller and Link in October.
I can't wait to tinker with my controller and Link in October.
ashecitism
Member
Trial with
Super Hexagon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALKHJ-psOdo
Shovel Knight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVSphG_GYjc
Super Hexagon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALKHJ-psOdo
Shovel Knight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVSphG_GYjc
Using the touchpad as a Dpad with what appears to be a massive deadzone (or maybe just the way he likes to play) seems really unintuitive to me. I'd rather have a much smaller deadzone that would allow me to roll my thumb to different directions rather than having to do big leaps. For twitchy games like Spelunky, that would be far better I think.
Felix Lighter
Member
I searched the thread but couldn't find anything are there any Pillars of Eternity or Infinity Engine demonstrations on the controller available?
So one thing I haven't seen anybody mention is that this controller has analog stick emulation for digital keyboard controls. There is an option in the menu where you define the analog stick to tell it how you wish to handle diagonal directions. You can choose overlap, which means if you press diagonally up and left, and you are using a wasd setup, it'll send both w and a at the same time. That's simple and restricts you to 8 directions.
Well, the other option is this:
Inside the advanced menu are more options to further fine tune analog emulation. The way it works is that it uses an algorithm to send pulses of tiny taps of keys to make you go in more than 8 directions. For example, if you tilt your stick up and to the left, but instead of being at 135 degrees, you instead tilt at, say ,100 degrees. Steam will figure out the correct ratio of w key taps to send and a key taps to send that would send you in that direction, where you move more forward than to the left.
You can play with pulse timing settings and thresholds in the advanced menu. Crazy thing is... this actually works. The caveat is that the game must support instant, tiny movements (so something that moves kind of wonky like Shenmue wouldn't work), but in splinter cell chaos theory and metal gear solid V, it's totally viable. Only downside - your character jitters in game, because it is switching between up and left several times per input. But if you ignore your vibrating character on screen, you gain pretty viable analog support, even for games which are only KB&M.
Well, the other option is this:
Inside the advanced menu are more options to further fine tune analog emulation. The way it works is that it uses an algorithm to send pulses of tiny taps of keys to make you go in more than 8 directions. For example, if you tilt your stick up and to the left, but instead of being at 135 degrees, you instead tilt at, say ,100 degrees. Steam will figure out the correct ratio of w key taps to send and a key taps to send that would send you in that direction, where you move more forward than to the left.
You can play with pulse timing settings and thresholds in the advanced menu. Crazy thing is... this actually works. The caveat is that the game must support instant, tiny movements (so something that moves kind of wonky like Shenmue wouldn't work), but in splinter cell chaos theory and metal gear solid V, it's totally viable. Only downside - your character jitters in game, because it is switching between up and left several times per input. But if you ignore your vibrating character on screen, you gain pretty viable analog support, even for games which are only KB&M.
I don't have Pillars of Eternity to try, but I plan on playing some Baldur's Gate 2 today. I am setting it up for bigger fonts at the same time to see how well it plays across the room on a TV using a controller.
Felix Lighter
Member
Awesome. Perfect. Thanks.
So one thing I haven't seen anybody mention is that this controller has analog stick emulation for digital keyboard controls. There is an option in the menu where you define the analog stick to tell it how you wish to handle diagonal directions. You can choose overlap, which means if you press diagonally up and left, and you are using a wasd setup, it'll send both w and a at the same time. That's simple and restricts you to 8 directions.
Well, the other option is this:
Inside the advanced menu are more options to further fine tune analog emulation. The way it works is that it uses an algorithm to send pulses of tiny taps of keys to make you go in more than 8 directions. For example, if you tilt your stick up and to the left, but instead of being at 135 degrees, you instead tilt at, say ,100 degrees. Steam will figure out the correct ratio of w key taps to send and a key taps to send that would send you in that direction, where you move more forward than to the left.
You can play with pulse timing settings and thresholds in the advanced menu. Crazy thing is... this actually works. The caveat is that the game must support instant, tiny movements (so something that moves kind of wonky like Shenmue wouldn't work), but in splinter cell chaos theory and metal gear solid V, it's totally viable. Only downside - your character jitters in game, because it is switching between up and left several times per input. But if you ignore your vibrating character on screen, you gain pretty viable analog support, even for games which are only KB&M.
This is great. I know for a fact that it won't work in MGS V (I tried it when I was thinking if a similar solution would work), but I know other games support that kind of fast response, so this will definitely have it's uses
It works in MGSV. I'm uploading a video of me playing around with the settings and showing it working.
Sorcerer
Member
Does anybody else think that Alienware will have to drop the form factor of the next Alpha/Steam machine if and when they want to make a more powerful machine?
Everything in the machine is made to reduce heat. T-processors, so-dimm memory.
I am thinking the next model might support the graphics amplifier (Alphas/Steam Machines are just laptops in a console form factor) if they want to keep the form factor. Otherwise they surely will have to go bigger.
Interesting. Didn't work when I tried it. In fact it kind of glitched out the animations
To me, it wouldn't really make much sense to build a machine with a dGPU and then allow the ability to use another (external) GPU instead, letting one GPU go to waste. I think it'd be cool if something with similar hardware to the Alpha came out, but they made it a bit bigger and took out the dGPU, lowering the price and allowing the user to put whatever they want in it.
Also, Pascal will probably be quite a bit more energy efficient than Maxwell; I wouldn't be too surprised if they could get something as strong as a 960 or greater in the next Alpha, if they use Pascal.
That analog emulation seems very cool btw, although it sounds like the jittering from it would get kind of annoying. I don't suppose it would be possible to get it as smooth as a game with proper analog support?
Nooo! This is the first bad news I've seen since the controller was announced.
There has to be a way to use the touchpad as an analog wheel! Couldn't it be added somehow?
ashecitism
Member
Valve Time staff checked out the controller and vive at PAX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGtBofq17tc
Say the bumpers are one of its worst parts (big, hard to click in)
Say the bumpers are one of its worst parts (big, hard to click in)
That's a lot better than I was expecting. Seems that with a high enough frequency it can work, but obviously looks a bit weird for something like this. I'd be more interested in a solution to analogue creeping speed for MGS though, since the keyboard restricts you to two speeds only - the creeping / walk is far too slow for me, while the running is obviously not going to work for creeping up to someone. With an analogue stick, I'm always somewhere in between, but for the keyboard I had to resort to the sneaking suit to cancel out noise from fast movement since the other speed is just too slow
grandwizard
Member
It's annoying when games that have varying speeds put the run/walk keyboard speeds to the fastest and slowest available, especially when the slowest is never useful. The Tomb Raider reboot was really bad about this, I remember counting 5 different speeds of walk/run animation using the analog stick, but on keyboard the walk was the slowest one which was was too slow to ever want to use.
ashecitism
Member
ieptbarakat
Member
Does the touchpad register movement via swipes or does it constantly recognize your contact with the pad allowing you to finely adjust your aim or whatever without having to let go of the pad?
The footage I've seen makes the touchpad seem jumpy and inaccurate in that regard, might just be the users. Coming from someone who played Metroid Prime Hunters on the DS which handled touchpad aiming pretty well.
The footage I've seen makes the touchpad seem jumpy and inaccurate in that regard, might just be the users. Coming from someone who played Metroid Prime Hunters on the DS which handled touchpad aiming pretty well.
ashecitism
Member
The latter. But you can swipe in trackball mode, it's like a ball is rolling under the touchpad. You can also set it to only accept input when clicked-in when it's in d-pad/button diamond mode.
ieptbarakat
Member
Ah thanks, so most of the footage has been in trackball mode then.
Edit: The Valve Time video above shows it pretty well, looks good.
ashecitism
Member
It's strange they say the trackball mode isn't suited for 1st and 3rd person games when that seems to be the opposite from what I understood. You can do rapid turns/movements with flicking it, and finer movement with just keeping your thumb on it.
Krejlooc played MGSV in trackball mode. Woodsie's FPS vid is in trackball mode, Trial uses it too. But hey, this is the nice thing about it. You can customize it to your liking to fit your style.
Krejlooc played MGSV in trackball mode. Woodsie's FPS vid is in trackball mode, Trial uses it too. But hey, this is the nice thing about it. You can customize it to your liking to fit your style.
Boombox On
Member
By the time the Alpha gets updated, Nvidia would be two generations ahead in power efficiency, so I strongly doubt it.
I noticed some people just don't seem to know this. It's kind of poor marketing in a way (even though there really isn't much to go on). I recall one of the guys from LinusTechTips doing a vid on the controller and then in the podcast later discussing it, both times seemingly oblivious to the fact it could be flicked and had momentum or weight.
alexandros
Banned
My plan is to use the trackball mode for most games. It seems like it would be the best control method as soon as you get used to it. Normal mouse mode would most likely require multiple swipes for fast turns or uncomfortably high sensitivity.
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